The Way Forward: Money follows Mission

One of the prevailing temptations in ministry is to leap too quickly to solutions, especially for the kind of folks reading this note, the vast majority of whom are leaders in their churches. Leaders become leaders by solving problems, by being perceived as capable and willing to tackle the difficult work of bringing God’s good news into people’s lives and the life of our communities. As leaders, then, we are tempted to leap before we look, for problems come fast and hard and the next one is just around the corner.

Nowhere is this temptation more prevalent that when dealing with money. “Being good stewards” is our polite way of raising concerns about money; “Butts and Bucks Anxiety” is sometimes closer to the truth. When money concerns present themselves, leaders’ leap before we look impulse often kicks in with renewed vigor, for, unlike the federal government, churches must live within a budget. Such a response is natural, inevitable and is indeed being a good steward. However, in the urgency of the moment we sometimes fail to distinguish between the short-term, limited and provisional decisions that must be made right here, right now and the longer-term, broad and wide, strategic choices that must be made for the health of our congregations. Or, in this instance, our presbytery.

As I have discussed these past few weeks, the presbytery is beginning to engage in a conversation about our budget, about how we spend money, for we have an unsustainable budget deficit of $180,000 caused by a complex array of factors. In the short-term, we will make some limited and provisional decisions about how to decrease the deficit, review reserve funds toward possibly redesignating them and look at gaps in our current structure that might save us a few bucks. Much more significant will be the ever broadening, ever widening conversations focused on the longer-term, strategic choices that must be made. To give focus to these more strategic questions, I have proposed a set of three questions with which to approach our budget. These questions work for a local congregation just as well as they do for a presbytery:

·         What are we constitutionally required to do?

·         What are our core commitments that are a function of our identity and call from God?

·         What are other considerationsthat are, perhaps, important yet do not reflect our deepest identity and calling?

These three questions suggest a hierarchy of values, and as such function as a lens through which one can examine and explore who a presbytery (or congregation) is, what kinds of things they must do to remain true to their identity before Christ and their unique calling from God, and what may be one or more things that are bound to make Jesus happy but which are not foundational to the shared missional vision of the congregation (or presbytery). All this is a way of speaking the truth leaders have known for years: money follows mission; first mission, then money. Yes, we need to talk about the budget deficit. But first we need to know who we are and whose we are; we need to examine, explore and embrace our mission.

Resisting the temptation to leap before I look,

Brad Munroe

The Way Forward: Engaging Adaptive Questions

Last week I summarized the Presbytery’s current fiscal dilemma ($180,000 budget deficit in 2015) and suggested the way forward together will require us to move beyond merely discussing things in terms of technical fixes but rather engaging the adaptive challenges associated with our life together (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfLLDvn0pI8).

Today I would like to suggest some questions that help organizations such as a presbytery (or your congregation) engage the adaptive challenges presented by our ever-evolving world of complexity:

o   Questions to ask that are already being discussed

o   Questions to ask that no one seems to be talking about

o   Issues we see that need to be addressed, at least from our point of view

o   Opportunities before us that are either (a) a bit outside the box kind of thinking, (b) really outside the box, (c) wild hair ideas, or (d) whatever is beyond a WHI

o   People who need to be around the table of conversation (beyond us)

o   Sacred cows that no one seems to want to talk about (remembering sacred cows make gourmet burgers)

o   Elephants in the room (a more extreme example of the above)

What would it look like for your Session to have the kind of conversation in which these questions are engaged? Such a conversation requires implicit trust, radical humility, deep sensitivity, uncommon honesty and a willingness to listen, listen, listen. Only communities of care are able to engage in such conversations.

My wife, a licensed therapist, likes to tell couples that she is “on the side of the relationship,” which is to say that a healthy relationship means all parties listen and all parties are heard; yet each party also takes personal responsibility to serve the relationship with both courage and respect. Only communities of care are able to engage in such conversations.

What will it look like for our presbytery to have the kind of conversation in which the above questions are engaged? We are about to find out. I am bringing these questions to the Resources Committee, to the Leadership Team and, in April, to the Presbytery meeting in plenary. And I invite you, through whatever cohort or sub-group in which you participate (e.g. CNAM, Hispanic Fellowship, one of the theological cohorts), to begin to engage these questions. Together we will be a community of care able to engage in such a conversation.

We are all on Team Jesus,

Brad Munroe

Seeking Congregational Renewal: Presbytery Transformation Grant 2

It is with great pleasure that I announce that your presbytery leadership has finalized our grant application to General Assembly for a Presbytery Transformation Grant. Pending approval by General Assembly, this grant will help fund retreats, educational seminars, online training, personal coaching and demographic studies to be utilized by congregations to catalyze their efforts toward congregational renewal. These activities will be designed to benefit both ruling elders and teaching elders, as our conviction is that shared leadership for ministry is essential to congregational transformation!

Our presbytery’s transformation grant application focuses on several themes:

1.      Promoting Congregational Evangelism – skill development for individuals, ideas for congregations, sharing the Gospel in Word through faith sharing

2.      Leading through Change – skill development for pastors and Sessions on steps required to lead a congregation in changing contexts, with adaptive rather than technical processes

3.      Cultivating Multi-Cultural Ministry – steps that encourage movement in the direction of becoming more multi-cultural as congregations, and what steps that stifle such movement

4.      Initiating Congregational Renewal – learning to evaluate one’s changing neighborhood, demographics and ministry challenges and concrete steps to take toward discussion, planning, and action

5.      Moving toward Missional Ministry – learning the theology and specific practices that help congregations move toward building community and compassion with and for their neighbors: mission + relational = missional

6.      Ministering to Millennials – learning the new cultural ethos of younger generations and how churches can respond in helpful ways relationally, missionally and, of course, technologically

The grant request to General Assembly is for $50,000 and is a matching fund grant. Our portion of the matching funds will be taken from our mission priority reserve account. We will use these funds to underwrite the aforementioned retreats, seminars, online training, coaching and demographic studies. If approved by General Assembly, transformation grant activities will begin in August in conjunction with the combined presbytery meeting, so…Stay Tuned!

Seeking to Row in the Same Direction,

Brad Munroe

Seeking Congregational Renewal: Presbytery Transformation Grant

It is with great pleasure that I announce that your presbytery leadership has finalized our grant application to General Assembly for a Presbytery Transformation Grant. Pending approval by General Assembly, this grant will help fund retreats, educational seminars, online training, personal coaching and demographic studies to be utilized by congregations to catalyze their efforts toward congregational renewal. These activities will be designed to benefit both ruling elders and teaching elders, as our conviction is that shared leadership for ministry is essential to congregational transformation!

            Our presbytery’s transformation grant application focuses on several themes:

1.      Promoting Congregational Evangelism – skill development for individuals, ideas for congregations, sharing the Gospel in Word through faith sharing

2.      Leading through Change – skill development for pastors and Sessions on steps required to lead a congregation in changing contexts, with adaptive rather than technical processes

3.      Cultivating Multi-Cultural Ministry – steps that encourage movement in the direction of becoming more multi-cultural as congregations, and what steps that stifle such movement

4.      Initiating Congregational Renewal – learning to evaluate one’s changing neighborhood, demographics and ministry challenges and concrete steps to take toward discussion, planning, and action

5.      Moving toward Missional Ministry – learning the theology and specific practices that help congregations move toward building community and compassion with and for their neighbors: mission + relational = missional

6.      Ministering to Millennials – learning the new cultural ethos of younger generations and how churches can respond in helpful ways relationally, missionally and, of course, technologically

The grant request to General Assembly is for $50,000 and is a matching fund grant. Our portion of the matching funds will be taken from our mission priority reserve account. We will use these funds to underwrite the aforementioned retreats, seminars, online training, coaching and demographic studies. If approved by General Assembly, transformation grant activities will begin in August in conjunction with the combined presbytery meeting, so…Stay Tuned!

Seeking to Row in the Same Direction,

Brad Munroe